Wide Plank Flooring
FAQs
Kentucky Flooring Company LLC
5555 Rockwell Road
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
859-539-2372
sales@kentuckyflooringcompany.com
Kentucky
Flooring
CompanyLLC
Phone 859-539-2372
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What exactly is custom-made wide plank flooring?
A: First, wide planks are flooring that is 3 inches and wider, when the three inch flooring is mixed with wider widths, say 3-5-7 inches. Our “standard” method of flooring manufacture is 3 thru 6 inches, which allows for good utilization of the lumber resource, and hence a reasonable price for the finished product. There are many manufacturers of wide plank flooring in the United States. However, most of these put their product up in much shorter lengths. Select and better, for instance, is required to only average 3.25 feet. It is usually “nested” in 7 or 8 foot bundles. This means that the longest plank will be 7 or 8 feet. It also means that the other planks that make up the nest will be shorter. In a seven foot nest, for example, you would have the following combinations: 6 + 1, 5 +2, 4 +3 feet. Our flooring will average in the 7-8 foot range!
Our custom wide plank flooring is made a little differently. A human handles each board six or seven times during the manufacturing process. This allows us to obtain the greatest yield out of every board, and to turn the board so that we get the appearance that we are looking for in that order. The large plants that nest their product are unable to do this, as they are running at speed that you can’t believe, unless you see the process. Machinery does most of the work; workers might touch the planks only at the beginning and end of the manufacturing process. Our way of custom manufacturing results in a superior product, at a very attractive price.
Q: What grades do you manufacture?
A: We offer two grades, Select and Natural.
Q: Your custom wide-plank flooring seems less expensive than comparable products that can be found. How can that be?
A: There are several reasons for this!
First, for almost thirty years, we have nurtured our relationships with the many sawmills and hardwood companies that are located in the nearby Appalachian mountains, where the vast majority of our lumber comes from. This results in better quality of our incoming lumber, and at times, better pricing. We are able to pass these saving down the line!
Second, we have no advertising budget! And we have no salesmen to pay! Our sales are generated locally thru word-of-mouth, and, hopefully, thru this website.
Third, if you buy from us there will be no middleman. A lot of flooring in this country is sold thru a distributor, and then a dealer. If you purchase flooring from us, you’ll be buying Factory-Direct!
Fourth, we only manufacture flooring out of native Kentucky hardwoods-ash, cherry, hickory, wormy maple, the oaks, walnut, and, on occasion a couple others. We don’t do softwoods (pine, and it’s ilk), or imports such as the horrible Brazilian cherry. We specialize in native hardwoods!!
Last, things are probably less expensive in Kentucky. Most of the custom wide plank flooring manufacturers are located on the East Coast, the Northeast or the Frozen North.
We’re pretty sure that our labor costs and other overhead are less than most parts of the country.
Q: Do you prefinish your flooring?
A: No!! Aboslutely not!! While prefinished flooring has it’s place, we cannot recommend it unless you are doing a remodeling job. Remodeling is the only place that using prefinished makes any sense. It allows you to avoid turning the existing home into a dusty mess. But at a price: The prefinished flooring just doesn’t look as good, and it isn’t as good. You see, the prefinished floors have a small bevel wherever the individual planks touch each other. The purpose of this bevel is make your feet not notice the differences in mismatched height of the individual floorboards, which would normally been evened out by sanding after the unfinished flooring was laid.
Q: What about presanding your flooring?
A: Again no!! Due to the tiny irregularities left after the flooring is installed, the floor would need to be sanded to even out the floor, no matter how smoothly sanded it was. Don’t pay for presanding!
Q: There seems to be a lot of mention about something called heartwood and sapwood. What are these?
A: Ever been behind a logging truck? Probably not, but in Eastern Kentucky, it is a common site. You can see the ends of the logs, which show clearly the heartwood and sapwood. The heartwood is the center portion of the tree. It is always darker than the surrounding sapwood. A tree like walnut has a large heart and a small outer ring of sapwood. Ash is the opposite, it has a small heart and a large sap.
Q: What’s wrong with this picture?
A: What a beautiful kitchen!! But if you look closely, you will see a half-dozen or so very short floorboards, some as short as one foot. Wouldn’t it have been better to have used longer boards in this well traveled common area? We think so! And this is very expensive flooring. Unfortunately, this manufacturer nested his flooring in eight foot lengths, which included pieces as short as almost one foot. Don’t do this! “Wider and Longer is Better!”
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